Understanding Rhetoric

While reading Issue Five: Composing Together, I learned a lot of valuable tips and tricks to working together as a team. In college so far, I have been asked to work in many different group settings. I severely disliked group projects at the start, because much like the people in this issue, I found myself doing all of the work. After reading how to properly deal with collaborative projects, I feel much more comfortable about them. Issue Five suggests to readers that in order to successfully create a collaborative project, the goal of the project needs to be thoroughly thought through. Instead of simply jumping into solving a problem or completing a task, the group needs to assess the various paths they can take. After this, then the work should be split up based on the individuals strengths and weaknesses. As an engineering major, working collaboratively in a team is a huge part of my everyday life. Like many group projects, some members of the team will refuse to contribute...

After reading Issue 4: Argument Beyond Pro and Con, I gained a lot of useful insight over how to create a strong argument in both an academic and professional setting. I have never really considered academic arguments done in research papers or other scholarly forms to be so similar to conversations, but this issue thoroughly relates the two. "A good argument is actually a lot like a good conversation. It is important to represent more than one side." Writers Losh and Alexander use the idea of a talk show host to explain how presentable and well structured arguments are much like real life conversations. For an argument to be successful, it needs to represent more than one side. The visual representation of the talk show host helps readers better understand this idea because "in a way, talk shows stage debates as conversations among several different participants" (Losh et al 158). This visual metaphor kept me interested in what I was reading and learning. Durin...

While reading Issue 3 of our graphic guide, I learned many different and interesting approaches to writing. Looking at this issue from one perspective, I was first drawn in to the images and illustrations. The superhero approach not only helped me understand the writing ideas that I was reading, but also entertained me and kept me involved. The changing of costumes, or in this case, super suits, is symbolic of changing how you present yourself to different audiences depending of the community they come from and what you wish to say. This is the first approach to writing identities-- choosing how to present your writing to the audience.  Presenting yourself to specific audiences in certain ways can make your writing and yourself look much more credible. This is an example of Ethos. The illustrators of the graphic guide use the example of two t-shirts. One depicts a woman wearing a shirt that says "Live Long & Prosper" (Losh et al. 125). This shows the audience that she ...

Upon reading Issue 2 of Understanding Rhetoric, a Graphic Guide to Writing, I was introduced to the idea of strategic reading. One reading strategy presented in this issue is critical reading. Critical reading is a more active way of reading literature where the reader deeply analyzes and interprets what they are reading. Writers Losh and Alexander present the idea of critical reading by examining Frederick Douglass' autobiographies. The use of Frederick Douglass' book as a way to demonstrate critical reading helped me understand how to effectively analyze text. I have read Douglass' autobiography in the past, so this was all familiar to me. Being able to look at his words in a new way made the information seem so much more powerful. The choice to use Douglass' work implements the idea of Ethos. Frederick Douglass is an extremely well-known and admired activist, so using his words makes the points much more credible. Even in Douglass' own writing, he ...

Introduction: Upon reading the introduction of Understanding Rhetoric: A Graphic Guide to Writing , I came across many examples of visual elements and metaphors. These visual elements and metaphors work together with written words to create visual literacy . The Introduction of  Understanding Rhetoric: A Graphic Guide to Writing is filled with multiple examples of visual elements. One of the most straightforward uses of visual literacy is the comic book setup. This artistic choice made by the authors and illustrators of the book helps grab the attention of readers while giving them something to relate to and think about. I think that the comic book setup made me feel like I was reading for enjoyment, rather than because it was assigned work. An example of a visual metaphor used in the introduction is the illustrated characters of Jonathan and Liz. Readers are introduced to these characters in the first few pages and they guide them through the lessons of the book. The ...